Copy of The Nara Period

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Transcript of Copy of The Nara Period

The Nara PeriodThe Nara Period Begins710 - 794Overwhelmingly, the common people live in villages and lead a rural lifestyle.At FirstPredominant religion: ShintoBeginsin 710 ADwhen the capital is established at NaraEmperor Shōmu Embraces BuddhismLet's Import China!WritingOverviewBuddhism Gets BigWritten Language Takes OffLet's All Be Like ChinaQuestionsEstablished a system of provincial templesCommissioned the Great Eastern Temple and its enormous bronze Buddha(the closest anyone ever came to officially making Japan a Buddhist state)Ruled 724 - 749The population soon grew to around 200,000 (7% of the country's total)

10,000 residents worked in government (5% of the city)

Coins were minted, but rarely used away from the capital

Site of the Great Eastern Temple, completed in 752Nara: Japan's First Urban CenterSeveral historically significant works, both poetry and historical records, were produced in this periodOne Million Pagodas and Dharani Prayers (Hyakumantou Darani)Commissioned by Empress Kouhen, one million prayers were printed by woodblock, placed inside one million wooden pagodas, and given to Buddhist temples across JapanThey are the earliest known printed works from Japan; some still survive today1) What city was the capital of Japan during (most of) the Nara Period?

2) Give an example of something Emperor Shōmu (who ruled from 724 until 749) did to promote Buddhism in Japan.

3) The two earliest works of Japanese literature were produced during the Nara period. What was the subject of these works?

4) Man'yōgana is an early Japanese writing system named for a poetry collection published in the Nara period, which used it. In a sentence, what is the basic idea behind Man'yōgana?

5) Which foreign country had the greatest influence on Japanese law and culture during the Nara period?Discussion: 1) How might history be different if Emperor Shomu had not favored Buddhism? 2) In your opinion, how closely related was China's influence over Japan to the lack of any convenient writing system for vernacular Japanese?Chinese writing (kanji)Chinese religion (Buddhism)The Kojiki and NihongiEarliest works of Japanese literature Kojiki, 712 AD; Nihongi, 720 ADBoth are historical recordsThey begin with creation, and so are important texts in ShintoWritten in Classical Chinese (with some transliteration notes for the songs)Oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry Literally "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves" but the title is really "collection of countless words."

Man'yōshūThe Man'yōshū is important for using one of the earliest Japanese writing systems, the cumbersome man'yōgana. A precursor to hiragana, this system uses Chinese characters purely for their soundPublished 759 ADChinese everything else!Chinese law - the Yōrō code (a revision of the Taihō code) was based on Tang dynasty lawA reconstructed mission ship like the ones sent to the Tang dynasty in the 8th centuryMissions were sent to Tang China every twenty years - scholars would return having studied Chinese art, religion, medicine, etc.